The Chat Room we had this weekend prodded me to recall a conversation I had several months ago when I was having lunch with a couple that I admire considerably. During the course of our discussion of church and ministry life, I was asked what I considered to be my most memorable and/or meaningful programming moment I had been a part of. I mentioned our 2006 Christmas services and shared that it was incredibly meaningful because I felt that our team really stepped out in faith by doing, for us, a very ambitious program. In addition it provided a real boost, momentum/attendance wise in the life of our church. However, a few days later thinking through the conversation I realized if I were to answer the question again this is how I would have responded (taking nothing away from Christmas 2006):
I was in our video production room in the early part of 2007 screening questions during a Chat Room session. Our teaching pastor was making a clarifying point that God can forgive us of "any" & "every" sin. He continued to reiterate this notion by referring back to God's incredible love for us that Jesus went to great depths to prove it by dying on the cross for the very sin we think is unforgivable. It was shortly thereafter that the following question was texted in, "Will God forgive me for the abortion I had?" My initial response was to pass on this question as it was clearly stated in the mesage that God can forgive any or every sin.
However I quickly changed my mind, as I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit that this woman, whoever she was, needed to hear that her sin, abortion, needed to be addressed specifically and by someone who had become a trusted voice to her. So we sent the question to the teleprompter at which time our teaching pastor took a break from his address to address the question. You could hear the emotion in his voice has he first thanked her for her vulnerability and honesty and then to say, "Yes God can forgive abortion." He then proceeded to pray for her as we in the video control room did so as well. You could feel the emotion in the room. Many after the service shared how healing it was to them and how they could we feel the loving, redeeming presence of God in the room.
This for me was our finest moment and I humbled that I could be apart of it. It captured the essence of what the church can be. A place where they can experience God's presence and a place they can come broken and marred and leave redeemed and loved by the One who gave His life for them.
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